Saw VI: Survival of the Fittest
by abstow89
Summary: Nine strangers are trapped inside a factory full of traps set by Hoffman. All of them must either work together to survive the gauntlet and live, or ignore the rules and die.
1. Cold to the Touch

**Saw VI: Survival of the Fittest**

**A/N:** **I kept watching a clip from Saw V and suddenly got an idea for a fanfic. Instead of five people, there are nine…and they all must either work together to get past Jigsaw's traps or perish. But there's always that ONE person who gets left behind…**

_Cold to the Touch_

It was extremely cold and dark inside the humongous building that housed nine civilians and dozens of traps every which way you turn. It was a typical Jigsaw method: capture the victims when they least expect it and trap them inside some torture chamber. It's not like Jigsaw was a serial killer; he just wanted people to value their lives more…even if it had to be through painful methods. Unfortunately, Jigsaw has died and so has his protégé Amanda, so Hoffman has been busy building this factory. This first person to wake up was a young man named Jackson Darloway, an American national with Columbian heritage. He started panting and first muttered, "Oh, shit." wondering if he went on another drinking spree again and passed out. Then he suddenly began to freak out and kept saying, "What the fuck?" several times. He tried walking, but suddenly realized that his stomach was restricted by something. He slowly ran his hand down his chest and felt cold hard metal.

It was a chain, rusty and so cold that it gave him goosebumps. Someone had put him here, and by the looks of it, they weren't going to let him leave.

"What the fuck is this shit?!"

He continued to tug at the chain, struggling and straining and hard as he could until the lights came on and he was momentarily blinded. When his vision came into focus, he saw eight other people trapped in the same room, all chained up the same way. They were also all awake and standing still, trying to examine the place before they triggered the trap.

"What the hell…?"

"Don't move." said a Mexican blond woman.

"What??"

"It's a trap. You move, the trap starts and we could all die."

"What fuckin' trap? What are you talking about?"

"Jigsaw...this is one of Jigsaw's traps. I knew this was gonna happen to me one day! This is what he does." whined a man in a tattered yellow shirt and jeans.

"It's not Jigsaw you guys. He's been dead for years." added a Caucasian woman in a blue blouse and jeans with red hair.

"That doesn't matter. Someone else does these things to people and it still happens. It's happening right now!" said Jackson.

He started tugging on the chains again.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you mate." said an Australian bald man wearing standard army uniform.

"Why?!"

"Do you not see where these things lead to? As soon as one of us pulls this thing hard enough, all of us are gonna get sucked into some trap or some other type of horrific shit."

"You think he's controlling us or watching us or something?" asked a Filipino man wearing a green vest and shorts.

"You're right. Someone's watching us." said the woman in jeans.

Everyone looked up and saw a giant set of cameras all over the place, many of them in the corners. The man in the tattered yellow shirt was starting to sweat heavily.

"You're starting to freak me out…"

All of a sudden, this giant monitor attached to the wall with a giant screen came to life. It made a loud hum and static noise, then it suddenly turned blue and showed a doll's head slowly turn and face everybody.

"Hello everyone and welcome. You people all have your own personal issues that you constantly and selfishly blame on others when it is you who has caused yourself pain. You have all been trapped in here to prove whether or not this is true, and to see what _real _pain feels like. There are nine of you in this room now, but nine will soon become one. The chains tied to your torsos' are connected to the device you see in front of you and should any of you pull too tightly, the countdown will begin and you will have 120 seconds before the crushers activate. The chains will be wrapped around them and you will be launched inside the crusher along with it, experiencing a gruesome fate. The only way to free yourselves is by finding the right key which is hidden throughout this room. Your mind will tell you the obvious choice, but I strongly recommend fighting those urges in order to survive. Let the games begin."

The TV shut off and everyone stood still, looking at the crusher in the middle of the room. They also looked all over the walls and objects inside, noticing keys were in several different places. Jackson came to a conclusion, examining the area and the current situation they were in.

"One of us has to die." he nervously muttered.

A couple of them looked at each other, not knowing to agree to his statement or not.

"That's real encouraging shithead." said some pompous lawyer in a purple business suit.

"What the fuck did I do?!"

"Yes…what did you do? What did we all do to deserve this?" asked a woman with brown hair wearing all black.

"What do you mean what did we do??" asked the bald man.

"Jigsaw or whoever this is only does this to make people value their lives more, right?"

"Yeah…" said the Mexican woman.

"So maybe we should share what we did and why we're here."

Everyone stood silently, hoping that the other person would admit their sins before he or she did.

"I'm a junkie." said the Mexican woman.

"I used to be a pimp." said the man in the tattered shirt.

"I stole mass weapons of destruction and detonated it on Korean soil." said the bald man.

"What about you guys?" asked the brown haired woman.

No one else felt like speaking about their lives.

"Hi, my name's Carl Maniypan. I'm an ex-comedian turned serial-killer." said a man wearing a red sweater and jeans.

"This isn't a fucking joke!" yelled the Filipino.

"You guys wanted to know about me; I told you."

"If you guys really need to know my life story, I'd rather--"

"Hey, you're that grease-monkey from Tijuana who kept getting busted for nickin' cars." said the bald man.

"How do you know me?!" she asked.

The bald Australian said nothing.

"Answer the question Aussi." demanded the lawyer.

"How do you know her?! Will you please just fuckin' talk to me!" shouted Jackson.

"It's just a game mate!! That's all this is; a game!"

"What does that have to do with anything?!"

"Because in this game, the less you know the better. It's not my fault I heard the bird's name on the telly."

"Okay, everyone just shut up! Like right now!" said the red-head.

"Like I said…we're all here for a reason." said the woman in black.

The retired pimp groaned and rubbed his head.

"What the fuck do we do?"

"Wait here while I go find out." joked the serial-killer.

"It said not to follow the urges our brains tell us."

"But if we don't get the keys, we're stranded here for the rest of our lives!!" yelled the man in the yellow shirt.

"Just relax." said the bald man.

"I AM FUCKING RELAXED!!!"

"Look it's not my fault that you fucked up your life and wound up getting' tossed in here with the rest of us. Maybe you shouldn't have been bitch slappin' birds 24/7 eh?"

"Fuck you!"

"Yeah, that's gonna help. Saying 'fuck you' over and over again thinking it'll break the chains." muttered Jackson.

The ex-pimp started hyperventilating, freaking out of his mind.

"Fuck you guys--I'm getting out of this fucking trap!!"

The man in the tattered shirt started straining like crazy in order to get away from the trap.

"I CAN'T--"

Suddenly everyone else was yanked backwards and fell down. The pimp forgot that all their chains were connected through the crusher and he was inadvertently pulling them all down. Then a wire was pulled far enough to activate the trap. The timer had been set and they now had 120 seconds left before the crusher sprung to life and yanked them all inside.

The Filipino man threw himself towards a key on the floor and yelled, "Got it!" and put inside the padlock on the chains. But for some reason, it wouldn't fit.

"Oh my God, we don't know which key goes where!"

Now everyone was really starting to panic. They thought one of the keys could open their chains, but it turns out that Hoffman made it so that only ONE certain key would unlock each person's restraints. It seemed highly likely that even one of them would survive. Jackson struggled to drag himself behind a set of steaming pipes and grabbed a key stuck to the back of one of them, severely burning his hand. He held onto the key for dear life when the Mexican woman started running forward and wound up pulling Jackson down. He quickly put the key inside the padlock and twisted it, unlocking the chains and setting himself free.

"Oh, that's some bullshit!" yelled the lawyer.

"Shut up! I'm gonna help you guys find the keys!"

Jackson hated half the people there and in his opinion, he should just walk away right now and leave them all. But there was no exit he could find and even if there was, there might be another trap behind it. The bald man was pulled back to the floor twice before he managed to get his key. It was tied to a wire and it needed to be pulled off. But as soon as he got the key, a gun fired into his shoulder. If he hadn't moved at the last second, half of his brain would be missing. He quickly unlocked himself and held his wound.

"I know where the keys are!!" yelled Jackson.

It suddenly made sense. Everyone who committed a sin was going to have to do it one last time…to themselves. Jackson had been thrown in jail for arson numerous times, so he had to burn himself to get the key. The bald Australian was put in there for selling weapons and detonating weapons of mass destruction…and since Hoffman didn't want a nuke to go off, he decided the Australian would have to shoot himself to get the key. Jackson quickly ran over to the red haired woman in jeans.

"What did you do?"

"I murdered my ex-husband."

"That doesn't help! Get specific!"

"His head was cut off."

Jackson looked around the room and saw a device with the key stuck in the middle. Should anyone move the key, the device would turn on and cut the woman's head off in two seconds tops. The woman walked over to the key and laid under the device so she wouldn't die. As soon as she touched the key, it turned on and some of her fingertips were severed. She screamed and dropped the key, getting yanked back towards the crusher when Carl found his key. It was trapped inside a container full of knives, barbed-wire and salt. He didn't even bother hesitating; he just jammed his hand in there, screamed, and got the key out. Jackson quickly grabbed the dropped key and unlocked the red-headed woman's chains. Four of the nine were free…and they had 60 seconds left.

"What the fuck you guys?! Why isn't anyone else trying to save these people?!!?" screamed Jackson.

He was really the one person who was trying to save everyone; the others just stood there doing nothing, not even thanking Jackson for saving them. The Filipino man saw his sin in a block of dry cement. He once buried two people in cement and left them there to die. Now the key was sitting in the cement, stuck inside forever. Lucky for him, there was a hammer and knife next to the block. As he grabbed the knife, he was violently pulled back when the lawyer found his sin and key too. Wads of cash. He defended several guilty clients and let them go free illegally, earning over half a million dollars in the process. The only problem was that when he looked inside one wad, it suddenly shot a metal spike into his left eye. He screamed horribly and was yanked back down on the floor. The Filipino grabbed the block and slammed it against the ground, breaking it apart with the hammer until he found the key and freed himself.

Only four were left now, and there were only forty seconds left. The Mexican was having trouble finding her sin, trying every key she could find on the floor…but none of them worked. The pimp had the worst sin to complete and unlock himself. He closely examined the woman in black and saw a large scar on her head that had been sewn up like a doll. The key was resting inside her forehead. In other words, he had to kill her to save himself. It was the same for her…she had to cut open the pimp's side to find the key.

"COME HERE BITCH!!!" he yelled.

The pimp yanked her chain and pulled her next to him. Then he started slapping her and punching her in the head.

"Stop it! Stop this right now!" yelled the Filipino.

The two of them looked at him and saw the hammer and knife in his hands. They weren't meant for him at all…they were meant for the two of them. They lunged towards him and punched him into unconsciousness. The woman grabbed the knife and slashed open the pimp's side, exposing part of his kidney. The key fell out with it, clacking on the floor. She lunged for it, but the pimp dragged her back to him and yelled, "BITCH!!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" yelled the woman with red hair.

She was simply punched in the torso by the pimp.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" yelled the pimp as he bashed the woman's head open with each "fuck you" he said.

He violently began to tear inside her forehead, looking for the key that would save him. Eventually, he found it and did so.

"Oh, shite. Tigre!" yelled the bald man.

Only the Mexican woman named Tigre and the lawyer was left. In the next ten seconds, both of them were going to die. Tigre and the bald man finally found her sin…a bag full of used needles containing the key. Tigre was just about to get the bag…until the lawyer shouted out and threw his whole body over the wads of cash. Tigre shrieked when she was dragged back to where she started. The lawyer was sifting through all the money as quickly as he could, not caring what would happen next. One of the keys was inside the wads. Tigre struggled and kept tugging at the chain, hoping it would suddenly break apart. Five seconds left.

"NO!!" yelled Jackson.

"AAH! AAH! AAH! AAH!!" yelled Tigre repeatedly, tears streaming down her face.

Both Jackson and the Australian jammed their hands in the bag trying to get the key. The lawyer's hands were shaking so violently, he couldn't even fit it in the padlock.

The timer rang and Tigre shouted, "AAH!" again. The lawyer freed himself just in time…and Jackson and the Australian found the key. But it was too late. The crusher activated and sucked in all the chains, including Tigre and the corpse of the woman in black. Blood splattered everywhere and a few of them screamed out loud. They all just sat there in disbelief, thinking it was all a dream. Jackson couldn't believe it either…they were so close to rescuing Tigre.

All of them were supposed to get out alive, but instead they lost two…when there should've been only one casualty AT MOST. Things weren't going as planned…


	2. The Blades of Salvation

_The Blades of Salvation_

Darloway and the others were in the next hallway, panting and trying to get their breath back. It was like they've been through hell and was glad that they managed to escape it. But it was only a precursor for the events to come.

"Will somebody tell me what the fuck just happened?" asked the pimp.

"A Mexican got dragged into some crusher and we all severely scarred ourselves in order to prevent ourseives from suffering the same fate." explained Carl.

"Nice going genius. How long did it take you to figure that out you fucking retard?" asked the lawyer, pulling on the shrapnel in his eye.

"WILL SOMEONE GET THIS FUCKING STICK OUT MY EYE!!?"

"Don't pull on it! You wanna scramble your brains?" asked the Filipino.

"Yeah, of course you'd know, being Asian and all."

The Filipino frowned and growled under his throat.

"Well thanks for playing the race card..."

"Don't mention it."

Everyone looked around at the hallway they were inside. It was long enough to house an elephant and wasn't very far to the end. The walls were covered with violet-red square tiles that stretched to the ceiling even. Jackson looked carefully down the hallway and noticed something he hadn't before. There should only be six doors at the end, but there were actually nine. In other words, the previous trap was made in order for everybody to survive.

"Nine doors. Nine fucking doors!" he yelled.

"What's the big deal? That's more than enough for all of us." said the pimp.

"That's not the point! Nine doors, seven people. We all coulda made it through that last trap if you hadn't bashed that woman's head open!"

"How else was I supposed to get the key? Cut open the stitches and fish it out?"

"Think about it jackass: The key was OUTSIDE of her skull. All you had to do was lightly cut open her skin and take out the key with your finger very carefully."

The pimp laughed. "Like I really had the time for that. Besides, killin' the bitch was a lot easier than doing all the crap you said."

Jackson punched the pimp in the mouth and the two of them started fighting, despite the fact the trap was right above their heads…literally.

"HOLY SHIT!" yelled the Australian.

He looked up to see several large fans hanging above them, completely motionless and safe. They were extremely sharp on the edges and if anyone so much as touched them, they'd cut their hand. A total of twelve of them stretched out all across the hall, waiting to start. Should someone activate the timer, a horrible fate would happen to the ones who were left behind.

"Jesus Christ, fans?" said the lawyer.

"Nobody move!!" said Darloway, immediately ceasing the fight with the pimp.

He quickly looked up to examine the current situation they were in again to see what they were up against. This seemed a lot simpler than the room with the crusher. No one was chained together so they could move freely. Even better was that there was no other traps in the hallway besides the bladed fans. They just needed to find the keys for the doors and they would be home free.

"Okay, nobody move a single inch."

"Who made you the boss?" asked the lawyer, still trying to pull out the shrapnel.

"I became the boss since I realized I was smarter than all of you."

The red-haired woman glanced towards Jackson.

"I have an IQ of 142."

"Really? Well, mine's 196."

"Shit."

"If you're so smart, how come you don't know our names and how come you're here anyway?" asked the Filipino.

"Your name's Gylroy Donson, the pimp's name is Iggy Harwin, the lawyer's name is Tommy Kellein, the Australian's name is Frizakk Welish, and the red-head's name is Nina Karson." said Jackson, pointing his finger to each person.

All of them stared at Jackson, not knowing whether or not they should kill Jackson for fearing he was the new Jigsaw, or chastise his pompous attitude.

"How the hell do you know our names?"

Darloway shrugged. "Internet."

"You still never told us why you're here in the first place." said Tommy.

"I got a shitload of Molotov cocktails and just started burning down a bunch of welfare shops. It kinda sucks, cause one of them had six people inside."

"Why would you randomly start burning down welfare shops?" asked Nina.

"Because people like me work hard to earn the things they get while all these hobos and bums get free money every week just by walking into a store; that's not fair to me. So yeah, I deserve to be here for the right reasons. That doesn't mean I'm the bad guy."

"Sure it doesn't." said Tommy.

Jackson ignored his comment.

"Guys, how do we get through here without killing ourselves?" asked Gylroy.

Iggy glanced around and noticed a tape recorder taped to the wall. He carefully walked over to it and took it off, pressing the play button.

"As you can see, this room is yet another death trap were you must decide whether or not to work together and survive, or suffer a horrible fate. The fans on the top of the ceiling are sharp enough to cut through titanium and will begin to spin at a speed that can slice an armored truck into pieces. When the trap is activated, the ceiling will slowly begin to descend to the floor until it finally touches the ground in 90 seconds, crushing anything and everything inside. However, in 60 seconds, the ceiling will be low enough for the fans to start cutting off your scalp. You must find the keys to unlock the doors within the tiles on the floors and walls. But be careful; after one person enters a door and leaves the room, lasers will seal the door and you must find another key to open the other doors. Let the games begin."

The tape recorder.

"So…either we starve to death or get our bodies cut into little pieces." said Frizakk.

"Compared to the crusher in that other room, this ain't that hard. All we gotta do is move--"

Iggy ran forward and started ripping out the tiles.

"I DIDN'T MEAN NOW!!"

Iggy stepped on a tile that pushed down into the floor like the block was out of place. He just activated the trap.

"Oops."

Everyone looked up and saw the fans slowly begin to rotate and spin fast, until they looked like the blades of a helicopter. Then the ceiling slowly began to rumble and slide down to the ground. They had less than 90 seconds to escape--60 if they were standing, and about 75 if they lay on their stomachs. Everyone began swearing and violently shoving each other out the way, ripping out every tile on the floors and walls. Frizakk was struggling with one tile that had a green squiggle design on it. It was a tile with the key under it. However, when Frizakk yanked it out, a mild acid squirted out the floor, severely burning his eyes.

"AAAAHHH!! SHIT!!!" yelled Frizakk, dropping the tile and breaking it.

Iggy shoved him out the way and grabbed the key, running towards the doors.

"My key, motherfucker!!"

Iggy unlocked the door and quickly ran into the next room. When Frizakk tried to follow him, lasers activated around the door. If he even touched one, his finger would burn off. Carl found his key easily; there was a tile with a giant crack on it. If he shaped the design of the crack, it'd look like a knife in barbed wire. He yanked off the tile and shouted, "WHOA!" when two anesthetic darts shot out the wall. Carl ripped the key from under the tile and opened the door, getting to safety.

Jackson realized this trap was just like the other one. The only way to get the keys was to hurt themselves with their sins. Jackson ripped open a tile with steam coming out of it, burning his hand so much that he could actually smell it burning.

"Jesus Christ!!" yelled Darloway.

He dropped the tile and started blowing on his hands, thinking it would help cool them off a bit. He picked up the key with his mouth instead of his hands, knowing he wouldn't be able to hold the key without dropping it with his hands. He inserted it into the keyhole and twisted his head, opening the door. Jackson felt bad about leaving the others behind, but he just wasted 30 seconds, and he could smell his hands burning. He had to put his life on the line first.

Only four of them were still in the hallway. Frizakk punched Gylroy in the back of the head and took his key. His face had just been burned by acid and he already had to pay the price. He deserved the key, even if it was by force. He bumped into the wall a few times, still temporarily blinded by the acid, but eventually reached the door and got free.

"Where's the fucking key?!?" shouted Tommy.

Gylroy found out where his key was, hiding behind a gray tile. Unfortunately, the key was inside the wall and he got his hand stuck inside when instant drying cement was deployed, sealing his hand inside. In order to get the key out, he would have to break through the cement with his other hand. He made a fist and punched the cement with full force, bruising his hand. Then he started shouting loudly with every punch, not noticing (or caring) that his knuckles were starting to bleed. The cement began to break apart, until he yelled and pulled out his hand, the key still inside. Gylroy looked in one hand, seeing a gray key inside. Then he looked at the other, seeing it shaking like crazy, covered in blood.

Then he looked up to see Tommy and Nina. Nina broke open a tile and yelped when some device lashed out towards her like lobster claws, nearly decapitating her. Tommy still haven't found his key and suddenly realized that someone else probably took it already, presumably Frizakk. There was no where else he could look. Well, there was one place, but it had been sealed in by the ceiling, which moved so far down that it covered the tile hiding the key. Two of them had a key, inevitably meaning that one of them was going to die. And Tommy was going to do anything to survive, even if it meant sending a woman to hell himself.

"Gimme that key you bitch!"

Nina screamed when Tommy yanked her hair and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her down and almost giving her brain trauma. Tommy laughed.

"Once again, male triumphs over female. Just like my pops always used to say."

Tommy walked down the hallway, tossing the key up and down and whistling casually to himself, like nothing happened at all.

"You sexist sociopathic piece of shit!!" yelled Gylroy.

Tommy yelled when Gylroy kicked Tommy in the groin and started stomping on his head and stomach. He grabbed his key and ran back to Nina, picking her up.

"Here. C'mon let's go!"

The two of them ran down the hallway quickly, noticing they had about seven seconds before the blades would start slicing off their heads. Before the entered the doors, Gylroy muttered,

"If you're so dominant, how come you don't have any balls? Pussy."

Nina quickly unlocked the door and ran through it.

"Wait. WAIT!!" yelled Tommy.

Gylroy unlocked his door and crawled through it when a fan cut off part of his hair. If he decided to walk through the door, he'd walk through the door missing over half his scalp. Tommy was left behind. He was on the floor with the stick still in his eye, staring at the fans descended to him. He started panting and began to crawl to one of the open doors. Tommy tried to go through the lasers, but his fingers were nearly cut off and he knew that if he went through, the lasers would cut him apart.

"SOMEBODY FUCKING HELP ME!!!!" screamed Tommy.

He lay on his back, looking at the fans that were ready to cut off his fingers.

"NO! NO!!"

Tommy began to scream when the fans started cutting off his fingernails, flying all over the hall and around his body. Suddenly his whole fingers were getting sliced off, small streams of blood getting in his face and on the fans. Then his hands were next, cutting through blood, veins and bone. Some of the crushed bones flew in his eyes and he screamed louder. Pretty soon his whole arms were getting sliced off and it was getting closer to his face. Tommy screamed horribly when the fans were cutting his nose off and it hit the spike in his eye too. The spike was dislodged and broke a major bone in his head. Somehow, Tommy still wasn't dead. At least not until his whole head and body was getting sliced apart and Tommy made this groaning sound like he was throwing up, which he probably was. The fans continued slicing apart Tommy, spraying blood all over the fans and hallway until the ceiling had finished its decent, colliding with the floor.


	3. Chamber of Depressurization

_Chamber of Depressurization_

Now only six of them were left to face off against Hoffman's deadly traps set to cause an excruciating amount of pain. The group was inside a cold room with metal walls and ceilings, but this room didn't seem to have any form of traps anywhere. …Something was seriously wrong; either Jigsaw was losing his touch…or the trap was hidden in the room. Maybe a bomb was sealed inside somewhere…?

"Hey, what happened to that lawyer dickhead?" asked Frizakk.

"Does it matter? The guy was an ass." said Gylroy.

"_Was?_" asked Jackson suspiciously.

"Shut up."

Jackson sighed heavily, not knowing what to say to the guy. He did have a point; Tommy was a sexist son of a bitch who let criminals go free…but that didn't mean he deserved to get sliced to pieces and crushed by ceiling fans. Compared to Tigre, Tommy suffered a much more horrible fate. Tigre died in about a second or two, while Tommy had to suffer over 12 seconds of getting his body ravaged upon. Not even a pissant lawyer deserved that.

"All right, genius, what's our next move?" asked Carl.

"Same as before: Find the tape, spring the trap, get the fuck outta here."

"Yeah well, I don't see a trap ANYWHERE in here." said Nina.

"Great. That means we can just waltz right through here right?" said Frizakk.

Jackson analyzed the room again, trying to find a clue anywhere throughout the room. Then he found it. The walls…they were slightly transparent and he saw a whole system of walls coming from the left and right side of the room. It was a maze. A gigantic maze like those ones people play on paper and the kinds scientists place guinea pigs in. Yet…there wasn't a trap anywhere, just a maze full of metal walls.

"I dunno what's in here, but we need to be a lot more cautious."

"Yeah, I think I broke my fuckin' hand in that hallway!" shouted Gylroy.

"And my face is still burnin' from that acid!" said Frizakk.

"Hey guys, I found the tape!" said Nina.

"Alright, play it."

Nina pressed the play button.

"Hello again, and welcome. This room is a chamber filled to the brim with oxygen. All you have to do to get through this trap is to take the right path which will lead you to freedom. But be careful; hit a dead end and you will suffer a penalty. If you fail to get to the other side of this chamber in 60 seconds, the air supply will instantly get cut off. Imagine it like being in outer space without a helmet: First you'll feel lightheaded and will get the sensation of slipping into unconsciousness. Second, the air will instantly be sucked out of your lungs and the pressure will begin to slowly crush you. Your head will swell up like a balloon; your eyeballs will grow so wide that they might pop out of their sockets. Eventually, you head will violently explode all over the chamber, killing you instantly. Let the games begin."

The tape shut off.

"Holy shit! We gotta go!" yelled Iggy.

"DON'T MOVE GODDAMNIT!!" shouted Jackson.

"What's your problem? This trap is so easy! Let's just go and get it over with!"

"That's not the point! You--"

Iggy began to run quickly towards the door and opened it, setting off a wire and the timer. Once again the team had less than 60 seconds to live, and once again, Iggy had sprung the trap.

"You stupid motherfucker!" yelled Carl.

"Every asshole for himself!" yelled Iggy.

Jackson and the others began to run through the door and stopped momentarily, gazing at how large the walls were, and how long the maze must be.

"Holy fuck. Which way do we go?" asked Nina.

"Uh…umm…split up!! If you get to the end, uh…yell real loud!" said Jackson.

"What?" everyone asked.

"Just do it!!"

Everyone went their separate ways, hoping that they would get to the ending as quickly as possible. Jackson ran left and turned a corner, winding up at a dead end, realizing he was about to get burned severely.

"Fuck, this is gonna hurt…" he muttered.

Two red hot pokers appeared from two fake walls, ready to poke Jackson right in the stomach. But at the last second, Jackson jumped over them and managed to not get burned. It was only at the last second where Jackson realized a branding tool was also sealed inside the fake wall, carved to look like a broken puzzle piece. It hit Jackson in the side of his neck, burning off part of his flesh and causing him to scream like Tom when his tail got caught in a rattrap. Now everyone was gonna know he was a victim to one of Jigsaw's traps…if he survived that is. Carl and Iggy appeared in front of Jackson.

"Dead end! Go find another route!" said Jackson.

"That must hurt..." muttered Iggy, smiling.

"Fuck you wife-beater and just keep going."

Gylroy was running left and right, ending up at a dead end all the time.

"Goddamnit, where's the exit!!?"

Gylroy had walked into four dead ends, amazingly not springing any of the traps that were set there. But once he turned right and went down a gray path, he wound up springing his trap. Well, he didn't really spring it; he just sort of walked into it. Cement. Quick-drying cement hidden beneath extremely fragile blue tiles. If Gylroy dropped a feather on them, he'd break the tiles. That fact that Hoffman managed to place them there without cracking it was astounding.

"ARGH!! What is it with me and cement traps?!!?"

Gylroy was groaning and straining to get his feet out the trap, only to realize that he was going to punch his way through it again. He punched the cement with his hand that wasn't damaged and suddenly said, "Fuck that, I'm not wasting my other hand." However, Gylroy noticed something that made him smile with joy. His boots were stuck in the cement, not his whole feet. All he had to do was slip his feet out his boots and he'd be out. Of course, he'd be walking in his socks the rest of the way (and it would suck if he stepped in a puddle of water) but he didn't care. He'd prefer having wet socks than getting his head crushed while suffocating at the same time.

Carl also managed to find a dead end and suffered a penalty too. Only his would be a lot more painful than Gylroy's. As soon as Carl stepped on a pressure-padded tile, many holes appeared in the wall, as though they were designed like Egyptian bobby-traps that shoot spikes out the wall.

"Oh, shit." muttered Carl.

Carl hit the floor immediately, losing a few hairs on his head and getting stuck across the chest. When all the spikes stopped shooting, Carl stood up again thinking he was safe again. At least until a spike shot out and hit him in the butt.

"OW, MY ASS!!!" shouted Carl.

Carl grabbed the spike and instantly pulled it out, not caring how much pain it cause him. He could patch up the wound later; no amount of medicine in the world could repair a head that exploded into several pieces.

"Where the hell are your shoes??" asked Nina.

Gylroy approached Nina, no longer wearing his shoes anymore.

"Does it matter? Has anyone found the ending yet?!!?" yelled Gylroy.

"NO!!" yelled Jackson, his voice echoing throughout the room.

Frizakk was having the worst time. He was literally running in circles, not knowing which path he already went on and which dead end he wound up ending at. All of a sudden, Frizakk spotted it: The exit.

"Hey guys! I found it! I found the ex--"

Suddenly a gunshot went off, shooting Frizakk through the cheek, ricocheting off one of his teeth and chipping it off. Frizakk fell backwards and hit the floor, clutching his face with his hand.

"Frizakk?!" yelled Gylroy.

Everyone ran to the area where they hears the gunshot and quickly found Frizakk lying on the floor, bleeding heavily from his face.

"Shit. He put a gun in the walls?" asked Gylroy.

"What do you think?" retorted Iggy.

"Guys we got less than 30 seconds left! We gotta get to that exit now!"

"There's not enough time! We can't navigate through this maze and get there in time!" said Nina.

Carl glanced sideways and noticed that Jackson had kicked off the wall and climbing over it, landing on the side with the exit on it. Everyone glared angrily at Jackson, unable to believe he would really leave them all to slaughter.

"Thanks bitch for leaving us here to get our heads blown off! That's really helpful asshole!" yelled Carl.

The group saw Jackson stomping on the ground and punching every wall that was anywhere near the exit. Then he returned to the group and jumped on top of the wall, stretching out his arm and lending the group a hand.

"I was checking to see if there were any other traps in here, that's all."

"But--"

"Shut up and take my goddamn hand before we die!!"

Nina was the first one who took Jackson's hand and lifted herself over the wall, running as fast as she could to open up the exit. The door was shaped like a sewer opening; she had to slide the circular disk sideways through a slot and go through the exit. Iggy was next, shoving Gylroy out the way and almost punching Jackson in the face. Instead of Iggy running out the exit door, he simply stood near the door, waiting for the others to go through it. Now Gylroy was next. He didn't even use Jackson's hand to pull himself up; he just kicked himself off the wall and managed to grab the top, pulling himself over the wall. Carl was the next person to get over, trying not to show the spike wound on his rear end.

"Dude, did you get stabbed in the--"

"SHUT UP!!"

Frizakk slowly stood back up and got over the wall, grabbing Jackson with his bloody hand and slowly pulling himself up. They had less than 10 seconds to get out of the room before the air supply was cut off.

"C'mon Frizakk! Let's go!" said Jackson.

It was unbelievable how he was helping a man who sold weapons to people which probably killed thousands. It was even worse how he somehow felt sorry for the man, seeing him with a bullet hole through his cheek. But he'd prefer to help people than to see a man's head explode. Everyone managed to get through the exit in time. Iggy, however, was holding the door on the other side and waited for Frizakk to put his hand through it. As soon as he did, Iggy shut the door and severed his fingers clean off, leaving him sealed in the chamber. Frizakk had five seconds of air to inhale before he died.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKIN' TOSSER!!" shouted Frizakk.

Everyone who exited the chamber turned a corner and realized that they could see right inside the whole place. They also saw that Frizakk was still inside, seconds away from dying.

"What the fuck happened?! Why didn't he get out of the chamber?!" yelled Jackson.

"I don't know! The door just slammed shut out of nowhere!" said Iggy, acting like nothing happened.

It wasn't until the very last second when Nina realized that Frizakk was still talking. He was shouting out a phrase that couldn't be heard because of the soundproof glass. But soon enough, she knew what he was saying.

"Kill Iggy! Kill Iggy!"

He said the same phrase over and over again until the timer buzzed and the air supply ran out. Frizakk even heard a loud hiss that abruptly ceased out of nowhere, indicating that the air supply was cut off. Frizakk fell to the floor, his mouth open and his body convulsing. His eyes grew huge and his whole head was red and bulging to the point where someone could see his veins. This same thing happened to Milton Krest in James Bond. The only difference between him and Milton is that the chamber he was in was bigger, and there was no briefcase full of money in the center of it. After suffocating for several seconds, his head exploded like a water balloon full of blood and crushed bones. All his organs flew across the chamber and blood was all over the place.

Nina glanced angrily towards Iggy, plotting what her next step would be to get him out of the picture. There was no going around it.

Iggy had to die.


	4. Lying on Stilts

_Lying on Stilts_

Now only five of them were left. Five injured humans were left to face all of Jigsaw's traps or else they'd be sealed inside the factory forever, where no one would find them. Jackson was slowly losing control. Not being able to save someone is one thing, but not realizing who wasn't the bad guy and who was is clearly another. Iggy should've been the first person to go, since he was already responsible for two of the deaths that took place. Tommy, however, died at the right time thanks to Gylroy. But everyone else shouldn't have met their demises like Tigre and Frizakk.

The five of them entered a simple room with nothing but a bed with hundreds of pointy spikes on it. They were constructed to be able to lie upon, but if someone pressed down too hard, the spikes would puncture the skin and flesh and inevitably kill whoever laid on it. Next to the bed was a variety of different sized rocks; some were big enough to crush Jackson's head, while others weighed only a few pounds.

"So…what do we do here?" asked Iggy.

"What the fuck do you think? Tape, trap, escape. That's been the plan this whole fucking time and you haven't listening to the rules!" said Nina.

"Who tied your panties in a bunch?" asked Carl.

"No…she's right Iggy. Every trap we've gotten into, you've set off when we told you not too. It's like you're the one who's working with--"

"Jigsaw? Hmph! Jigsaw would think I'm too stupid to be his protégé. Why would some low-level pimp like me work with him?"

Nina continued to suspect Iggy.

"What're you lookin' at?!"

"…Nothing."

Nina wasn't looking at Iggy directly; she was looking behind him to see if she should push his body on the bed of spikes.

"Look…we need to stop arguing with each other. The whole point of this operation is teamwork; we're not using teamwork right now. There should be nine of us standing here and there are only five." said Jackson.

"…Guys, what're those bombs doing in the corner?" asked Gylroy.

Everyone turned around to see four different sets of C4 with timer's located on them. They had less than 10 minutes to figure out how to get through the trap.

"Fuck it, let me just get the tape."

Gylroy walked over to the wall and found another tape recorder stuck to it. He pressed the play button and waited for Jigsaw's voice to come on it.

"The overall purpose of this test is teamwork and sacrifice. The bed you see before you is covered in spikes sharp enough to puncture through someone's skin if enough pressure is applied. Since you all have worked so hard to get this far, you now must decide who will be valued as 'collateral damage.' One of you will need to lie upon the bed while the others put rocks arranging from biggest to smallest on top of that person. Once all the rocks have been placed in the exact order, the door will unlock. Be careful though; if so much as one rock is out of order, the doors will lock and the bombs located in the corners of the room will explode. Should you take too long to decide who will die and the bombs will exploded as well. One person dies to save eight. You decide who it will be. Let the games begin."

Everyone began to look at each other as enemies now, no longer acquaintances or even hateful partners. Jackson was doing the same thing too. Everybody in the room (except for maybe Gylroy and Nina) hated him. He had to kill either Carl or Iggy. Carl was a serial killer, so he wouldn't mind killing him and Iggy already killed two people.

"Who deserves to live?" asked Jackson.

"…What?" asked Iggy.

"Is there anyone here who is or has been suicidal in their past lifetime?"

"No." everyone responded.

"Well…when I was a serial killer, I'd carve this checkmark on my chest just to, you know, do it. I don't really see why I did it but--" started Carl.

"Does anyone here have any family or friends that actually give a shit about them?" asked Jackson.

Gylroy sighed. "I HAD a wife and kid. We never really got…emotional and shit. If fact, I spent more time with my friends than I did her. Hell, you might as well call her my fuck-buddy if you want to."

"What about you Jackson?" asked Iggy.

"Uh…I work as some stock broker in the financial division. No wife, no kids. I spend most of my time trying to pick up drunk chicks from a bar or some java café."

"Why?" asked Nina.

"Easier access."

"How come you're here Nina?" asked Carl.

"Before I met my husband he raped me and told me if I didn't marry him, he'd kill my family. Two days after I married the son of a bitch I hacked his head off. The only reason why I'm here is because I took matters into my own hands and didn't call the cops."

"Damn…that must suck." said Gylroy.

"What about you Iggy? You've been the one asking all the questions here…" said Jackson suspiciously.

"To start off I--"

Iggy abruptly hit Jackson in the head with the hammer from the crusher room. Then he dragged Jackson towards the bed of spikes.

"What the fuck are you--?!"

Jackson hit Gylroy in the chest twice and kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

"Stop it! Stop it!" yelled Nina.

She tried to drag the hammer out of his hand, but he simply bitch-slapped her and stomped on her stomach.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" screamed Carl.

Iggy simply tripped the charging Carl and hit him in the stomach with his hammer too.

"What you dumb shits don't understand is that it's survival of the fittest bitches!!" yelled Iggy.

Jackson yelled when Iggy dragged him by his hair and stood him up next to the bed.

"Now get on the bed!"

"Fuck you." said Jackson.

Before Iggy managed to hit his hammer at Jackson's face again, Jackson grabbed the hammer and hit Iggy in the groin. Then he tackled him and started beating the crap out of him, punching him in the face repeatedly. Iggy tripped Jackson and started choking him with his legs, nearly breaking his neck. When Jackson was weak enough, Iggy went back and grabbed the hammer again.

"Fine. I'll just kill you use your dead body for the bed. It'll make my job easier."

Nina shouted and Iggy groaned in a gurgled way. He suddenly dropped the hammer and started choking and gagging, holding onto the back of his head. He looked at his hand and realized that a large portion of blood was on it. It was only after he died when Jackson noticed the large axe in the back of his head. Nina found a rusty axe on the floor and impaled it through Iggy's head, killing him.

"I-I had to do it. He killed that other woman, he killed Frizakk, he was gonna kill you!"

"Why the fuck are you apologizing? I should be thanking you by banging you in the ass! …But we don't have enough time for that. Let's just get his body on the spike bed."

Jackson kicked Gylroy's body and he suddenly jerked awake. The three of them dragged Iggy's body to the spike bed and carefully laid him on top of it. Jackson gazed at the ten different sized rocks resting next to the spike bed.

"Which one goes first?" asked Carl.

"Bottom one. Judging by the size and proportions, it should weigh the heaviest."

Everyone stared awkwardly at Jackson.

"You're making just one suggestion of which rock to put down first? Don't you think first assumptions will get us killed?" asked Gylroy.

"Trust me…the bottom rock goes first."

Nina and Carl kicked down the rocks and both picked up the gigantic rock. Nina couldn't hold it up and accidentally wound up dropping it right on top of Iggy's body, instead of carefully laying it on his body. Iggy's corpse splattered through all the spikes, indicating that Iggy's would've died even if Nina hadn't impaled him with the axe.

"Oops." said Nina.

"He's dead already! Why does it matter?" said Gylroy.

"…All right, the next one is that rock with a green mark right under it." said Jackson.

"How do you know this shit?"

"It's just pure physics and proportional mathematics, that's all."

Together, the four of them managed to successfully work with each other in order to put the rocks in the right positions. It seemed somewhat weird that Jigsaw hadn't put any form of trap on the rocks or inside the room. All they needed to do was "sacrifice" someone and put the rocks in the right orders so the bombs wouldn't explode. But in a way…that was the point of every trap. If everyone had simply worked together to get through all the traps (and if Iggy had been the first one who died) then there'd be eight people in that room, not four. All the rocks but the last one was standing on top of Iggy's body (which had gone completely through the spikes). However, the last rock looked weird…like it was a lava pellet.

"Okay, just one more rock and we'll be able to get out of this room."

"Good. We only got 60 seconds left." advised Gylroy.

"Does anyone else think this rock looks a little--OW!! FUCK!!" yelled Carl.

The second Carl picked up the rock, it started sizzling his hand and he was forced to drop it. The rock was so hot that it could melt through rubber and even give someone 3rd degree burns. Just when they thought they were done with the trap, they found out that Jigsaw had one little twist for the gang.

"Fuck! How do we place that on top?!" asked Gylroy.

Jackson began to rub his head furiously, knowing what he would have to do in order to put the rock on the top. He would have to burn himself…again. Jackson picked up the hand and dropped it after realizing that Jigsaw might've put acid on top of it. Then he shouted and quickly grabbed the rock and threw it on top of all the other rocks, hoping that it wouldn't tip over. Jackson had held the rock for only four seconds and he could see part of his bone.

"Goddamnit, what is it with this guy and burning?!" said Jackson.

At first, Jackson hated himself for not taking off his shirt and grabbing the rock with it, but he felt some sense of relief when the door slid open. Everyone abandoned Iggy's crushed body and ran out of the room, hoping that the next trap wouldn't involve another sacrificial procedure. No one felt bad for Iggy though.

After all, he did try to kill everybody.


	5. The Twinkling Razors

_The Twinkling Razors_

Four humans. Four human beings were left to challenge Jigsaw's deadly traps without dying. Just four. There were supposed to be eight of them walking in that hallway…but sadly there were only four. Jackson was somewhat depressed for a reason not even he understood. The others noticed it too when he was walking slowly and was farther behind the others.

"You alright dude?" asked Gylroy.

Jackson simply shrugged.

"I really don't know anymore. I'm just wondering…why there aren't eight of us walking in this hallway now. That's all."

Carl sighed exasperatedly. "You've never been in the army have you?"

"Why does that matter?"

"I used to be in the army for a couple of years before my comedy career began. And if there's one thing I learned…it's when you gotta realize what collateral damage means. It isn't when you see another civilian die right in your arms. It's when you _know_ that they're supposed to die in your arms. Maybe…that's why I became a serial killer…"

"What?"

"I had this buddy that I went to college with…and we stormed this Iraqi house and killed all the terrorists inside. Except for one. The last terrorist put seven bullets in my partner's chest and I responded by scalping and decapitating his head. I walked over to my war buddy and he told me that he was scared and that he didn't want to die. I just held him in my arms and said, 'Too bad. You're gonna die. I'm not gonna lie to your face and I'm not gonna try and save you cause I can't. Sure, I'll be upset for a few days, but I'll get over it and eventually forget your name. You're just gonna have to accept that.' And so he died…and I can't figure out his name to this day. And I'm not sad about it either."

"And the moral of this story is?" asked Nina.

"There's certain moments in your life where you can't save people you care about…or don't care about. Don't beat yourself up about it cause it already happened and no matter what you do…you can't change the past. Just take a deep breath and get over it."

"…What's funny about your story Carl…is that I don't give a shit about any of you. I haven't killed you yet Nina because my mind subconsciously is telling me that I should be trying to get into your pants. I haven't killed you yet Gylroy, because you've been nice to me this whole time and actually listen to me. Carl…frankly, I don't understand why I haven't killed you yet because you've been avoiding me almost this whole time and you are a serial killer. I guess…my brain isn't attracted to human torture and violence unless I cause it. Maybe it's just the concept of Yin and Yang, the demon and angel hanging over my shoulders. …You guys should be lucky that my Yin is kicking the shit out of my Yang right now. Otherwise…there'd be only one person in this hallway."

Nobody said anything for a long time. They all just stood there with bated breath, not knowing what to do next. Jackson was right; nobody gave a shit about the other person. They just wanted to survive. Everything that Carl and Jackson had said was true. After simply standing in the hallway for almost three minutes, Jackson finally said, "Let's go." and they started walking down the hallway again.

* * *

Nina, Gylroy, Jackson, and Carl arrived at the end of the hallway with a room that was right ahead of them. It was a standard cubicle with only one see-through wall. There was absolutely nothing inside but white tiles built into the floor and wall.

"So…spring trap, play tape, escape, blah, blah, blah." said Gylroy.

"Yeah, the same old bullshit." said Carl.

"Great." said Nina.

"Uh…why don't you go in first?" asked Carl.

"…Okay."

Nina slowly walked inside the tiled room, not knowing if some pendulum or sword would come out the ceiling and cut her in half. She just had to take that risk.

"Guys, there's nothing in here." said Nina, turning back around.

As soon as she turned around, the doors locked and two metal half-circles looped around Nina's shoes and locked them into place. She was pinned to the floor with no means of escape. Nina started yanking her leg and the metal pins as hard as she could, but the clamps just wouldn't budge.

"I can't get out!" yelled Nina.

A tape recorder suddenly fell from the ceiling outside of the room, right into Carl's hands.

"Just calm down Nina! We'll figure it out soon enough!!"

Carl pushed the play button on the tape recorded.

"This special little device has been designed--"

"Blah, blah, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Just skip to the end."

Carl pressed the fast-forward button on the tape recorder.

"--order to save yourself from this trap, you must slowly shove your hand through the box with razor-sharp saws so you can slowly get the key placed behind them. Should you waste over 60 seconds to get the key and the walls will shoot out several large blades that will chop your body into several slices. Let the games begin."

Nina started to panic and screamed because there was no key or box full of saws anywhere.

"Where's the fucking saws?!"

"I don't know!!" shouted Jackson.

A loud ting was heard and a clear rectangular box with saws on the inside and a chain hanging from the top slowly came down from the ceiling right in front of Nina. She glanced inside the box and saw the key behind all the metal saws. Somehow, she was going to have to slip her hand above the saws and pick up the key in between two of her fingers.

"Nina! You have to slip your hand into the box! It's the only way you'll survive!" warned Jackson.

Nina sighed and slowly began to slip her hand inside the box, edging it above the saws. She quickly retracted her hand and shrieked when the saws cut the top of her hand. That wasn't the way she was going to get free…

"NINA! Put your hand _through _the saws, not above them!"

"You gotta be shittin' me!!" yelled Nina.

Nina whimpered and looked inside the saw box trap. Four of the deadly devices were set to go in between her fingers and slowly cut through her hand, similar to what Mallick and Brit had to do in order to fill up the jars full of blood. Nina started to slide her hand inside the container, cutting in-between her fingers and splattering blood all over the box. When she was halfway there, she retracted her fingers and stopped screaming, holding her wounded hand.

"I can't! I can't do it!" yelled Nina.

"Yes you can! You were almost there! Just do it really hard and really fast and get the key!" advised Carl.

Nina sighed twice, preparing herself to jam the hand into the saw box. Nina screamed even louder when she slid her fingers right through the saws, not caring about the blood splattering around her face and the fact she was starting to saw her wrist. She used her middle finger to grab the key and slide it against the box, making sure the key didn't make contact with the saws. Her hand was finally out the box, covered in blood and broken skin. It was so damaged that she accidentally dropped the key.

"Fuck, she dropped the key." muttered Gylroy.

"Hurry up Nina! You got 10 seconds left!"

"…I thought she had 30 seconds…?" asked Jackson.

Nina picked up the key with her other hand and rapidly started to unlock the feet trapping hooks. As soon as the padlocks came out, she tried to unhook the traps. But something was completely wrong with the trap…because it wasn't coming off. Nina started to panic and nearly yanked her wrist out of socket when she continued to try and break off the hooks.

"I CAN'T GET OUT!!"

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck do we do man?!" asked Gylroy.

Nina stopped panicking and glanced over to Carl, who was half smiling and had this tiny yellow twinkle in his eye. It was always something about the twinkle that made people wonder if they just got fucked over. …Nina just got fucked over. Next to Carl's leg was his arm, which had a tiny device that looked like a remote in his hand.

This wasn't Jigsaw's trap at all; it was Carl's. He must've built his own version of Jigsaw's trap and made it so that it was inescapable. Carl was just another Amanda, building devices just to see how much pain someone will deal upon themselves…and then laugh when they were seconds away from freedom. And right when they were free…they'd realize there was absolutely no way to get out.

"You motherfucker…" whined Nina.

"What??"

Carl lightly tapped the remote and the trap activated. A series of twin blades erupted from the walls and sliced through everything in the room. The box full of saws exploded into plastic and metal and the hooks around Nina's foot were sliced to pieces. Nina simply stood there like nothing happened at all. She just stared at the group with a straight face and hair falling from head. A couple seconds later, her whole body slowly slid into several pieces, like she had been chopped into slices of bologna. In a sick twisted way, she had been cut into slices of bologna. There wasn't that much blood; just the various slices of Nina's head, torso and legs that had scattered all over the places.

It was too bad that no one saw Carl holding the remote or the half smile except Nina. Once again, Jackson was wrong…Carl was the one who should've died along with Iggy and Tommy. But it was too late for them to realize it. Gylroy and Jackson were standing next to a serial killer who was now planning on killing the last two survivors.

And he'd kill those two no matter what it took.


	6. Last Resort

_Last Resort_

Jackson was sitting next to the wall, completely confused and tired out. Once again, he failed to save an innocent person and now they were short one member. It wasn't that Jackson was sad, but he suddenly thought there was no more hope in the world…that they were all gonna die. Jackson repeatedly tried to consider why the trap didn't free Nina and why the trap went off nearly 20 seconds before it said it should.

"We have to go Jackson." said Carl.

Jackson didn't even try to move. He just continued to sit down and blankly stare right across from him, looking at the wall. There wasn't anything he felt like doing but just laying there.

"Jackson…we're almost there. Just a couple more traps and we'll get to the end. We're gonna get through this Jackson." inspired Gylroy.

"I don't…I don't know what to do anymore. Everything was supposed to go perfectly planned…now it's…"

"You think it's spiraling out of control…that there's nothing you can do anymore." added Carl.

"Every one of Jigsaw's traps was designed for people to escape by going through an excruciating amount of pain…but now I see that that isn't true. Maybe we should just sit here and wait until the cops show up."

"If you remembered it correctly, I'm a convicted serial killer who's going to end up on death row. If we at least find a way to get through this factory ourselves, we'll have a better chance of getting out of this clean."

"I already served my jail time. I got nothing to worry about." said Gylroy.

He then sighed and muttered, "Maybe we should stay here. I'd rather be in jail than go through another trap that could be inescapable."

"There are only three of us now, so that ultimately means that there are only three traps left. That's all we have to worry about…just three more traps." said Carl.

"That doesn't matter if all of those traps are inescapable, now does it?"

Carl shrugged. "That's a chance we're gonna have to take. Let's get going."

* * *

"Hey Carl?" asked Gylroy.

"Yeah?"

"How did it feel when you took another person's life?"

"Um…what?"

"Out of the three of us here, you're the only who has been killing repeatedly. I only killed for a personal reason, and Jackson didn't even kill intentionally. He just disregarded the fact that six homeless people were inside a building. So tell me…what does it feel like to kill?"

"What, you think I get off on killing people or something?"

"Understand, Carl, that when I killed I got upset. Even though I really didn't care much for those hobos that died, I started to suffer from anxiety and kept throwing up over all the guilt. But I suddenly decided that I shouldn't burn down any more welfare shops. You on the other hand continued to kill."

"So?"

Gylroy sighed and clicked his tongue. "Did you kill Nina?"

Carl laughed. "What the hell makes you think that?"

"Because you're a serial killer. Serial killers get off on killing people, just to see what it feels like. It's like the choking game, where some pre-teens hang themselves just to 'experience' what it feels like. It sends off a signal to the brain and the brain responds with happiness. And you, Carl, want to be happy. The only way to fuel your sociopathic needs is by killing people."

"So I kill people just to get 'high' and fuel my brain's needs. How does that mean I killed someone like Nina?"

"The device didn't break. She was still trapped even though she followed EXACTLY what the rules stated! She put her hand in that box and got that key and then she unlocked the leg restraints! I also realized that the blades deployed after 45 seconds, not 60. That's not what the rules stated." said Jackson.

"I think _you _built the trap Carl. I think you couldn't resist that urge to kill so you constructed this highly complex trap just to see someone die miserably." said Gylroy.

"Shut up."

"You know, I think I saw Carl getting a boner when he was watching Nina put her hand in that saw box…" teased Jackson.

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH!!!"

"You killed her didn't you? You son of a bitch!"

"What do you want me to say? So I led a young woman to her death just to see her die miserably. I'm not sorry for it and I'm not gonna apologize for it. It's not like anyone cared for the bitch anyway so…why does it matter? It's just like Iggy said: Survival of the fittest!"

"So you were against us from the start. You piece of sh--"

Carl held a pistol at Jackson and Gylroy. The two of them sighed exasperatedly, unable to believe that he also had a gun with him the whole time.

"You gonna shoot us?"

"I'm Jigsaw's protégé. He hired me to build some of these traps and I decided to lend a hand. Somewhere down the line I guess he found out about my criminals records, so now I'm a victim to my own work. Do you really think it's fair for me to die at the hands of my own traps?!"

"Do you think it's right to drag an innocent woman to her death?!!" screamed Jackson.

"Nobody's innocent in this world. You should know that by now."

"You piece of shit!"

Carl shot Gylroy in the leg as he ran towards him and was about to tackle him down. Jackson decided to grab Carl by the arm and the two of them were tussling over the gun. Jackson tripped Carl and the two of them were on the ground now. Carl slowly moved his gun near Jackson's face and was about to fire. Before he could though, Jackson let go of the gun and Carl slammed his own hand to the ground. Jackson dived to the gun and almost clutched in his hands, but Carl dragged him back and the two of them began fighting again.

Carl started punching Jackson several times in the face until it started to bleed heavily. Jackson blocked one of the punches and grabbed Carl's fist, kicking his arm and dislocating it. Carl screamed and started to dive for the gun again, only to get dragged back by Jackson again. Jackson stomped on his dislocated arm and cracked a couple of bones inside it, breaking his arm. Carl kicked Jackson in the back of the head and started stomping on his face like it was nothing. Jackson was nearly unconscious and Gylroy was still on the ground, holding his leg that had a bullet in it. Carl grabbed the gun and put it in his back pocket.

"Happy trails motherfuckers."

Carl slowly began to walk down a factory corridor, leaving the two victims to their slaughter.

* * *

Carl had reached the end of the factory. He was standing next to a door that had sign above it labeled "Exit". He had made it through all the perilous traps and was finally going to be able to go home. Carl sighed contently and slowly pushed open the door, entering a deserted room with absolutely _nothing _inside it. It was just a standard cold room with four red walls, a red floor, and red ceiling. That was it.

"What the hell? This isn't the exit!"

Carl yelped when the door behind him slammed shut and locked him inside, sealing him in the room forever. Carl ran over to the door and began to pound on it with his fist and kick it with his shoes. He even shot four bullets at it to try and see if the doorknob would fall off. But the door was made of titanium steel; no bullets were going to penetrate it. Carl glanced to his right and saw a tape recorder taped to the wall with his name on it. Carl tore off the recorder and pressed play.

"Hello Carl. Throughout your whole life you've only sought to destroy and kill for your own special needs and desires, not caring who else it affects. The fact that you are inside of this room only means that you must've killed Nina Karson with the trap you built to be inescapable. I thought you would've learned from Amanda's careless mistakes, but I unfortunately picked another rotten apple from the bushel. According to my recollection, that trap was never supposed to be built. All you had to do was walk in the other direction so Nina wouldn't have been sent to her doom. You broke the rules Carl, and for that you must pay."

"I didn't break jack shit! You said you wanted a trap like that to be designed! You never mentioned anything about it being inescapable or not!"

"You have stepped on a pressure pad that has determined your fate. I know you may be asking 'What if this is Jackson or Frizakk or Tigre in this room?' But I know it's not, because the pressure pad will only activate to your weight Carl. Sure, you might be carrying a dead body or something with you, so I also set the pad to activate when it makes contact with your shoe material. Also…the heat sensors in the walls can tell it's you, so anyway you look at it, you're the only person in this room."

A tiny but thick brown triangle slowly began to rumble its way from the center of the floor, getting bigger and bigger every second.

"If you are familiar with Felix Massie's death traps, then you'll know of this trap you've just activated. A large triangular block has been hidden beneath the floor and will slowly rise up to the ceiling, crushing everything inside of the room. You will simply 'disappear' forever Carl. And it's all because you couldn't stop killing innocent people. This is the final message you will ever hear from me. Goodbye, Carl."

The tape finished and Carl looked at the triangle block in the floor. It was getting bigger and bigger by the second, and before Carl knew it, he was slowly rising to the top of the ceiling. Carl backed up to the wall and started shooting at the block, hoping it would stop rising and that the door would magically open. But nothing worked. Carl tried to climb over the triangle to see if a door was on the other side of it, but he wound up sliding back to the wall. Pretty soon, the whole triangle would seal up the room and crush Carl, leaving almost no trace. The titanium doorknob broke off the door when the block continued to slide upwards and broke it off. Carl was putting his hands on the top of the ceiling, panting and whimpering, hoping his arms could jam the machine or stop it somehow. But it wasn't working.

After a few seconds, Carl screamed horribly when the bones in his arms cracked through his skin and blood splattered everywhere. Carl continued to scream until his legs violently exploded with blood and bones. One of the bones even managed to chip off and stab him in the torso. Carl suddenly groaned in a gargled way when his whole body was slowly getting crushed into the ceiling, the bones in his chest and head shattering like crazy and blood shooting out all the orifices on Carl's head.

Pretty soon, Carl was crushed to death by the block like Peter Strahm was. His body would be sealed in that room forever. Now there were only two of them left, ready to face Jigsaw's final test.


	7. My Little Box

_My Little Box_

Only two more people were left inside the factory. At this point, none of them even cared about all the people they lost and all the pain they've endured. They just had to go through one more trap before they wound exit the factory and then they would be free from Jigsaw forever. Jackson still felt a little upset about Nina, but he soon got over it. Besides, he was nursing Gylroy now, with a bullet still in his leg.

The two of them arrived in front of nine doors that were all unlocked and would lead to another trap presumably. Hopefully, this would be their last trap. Of course…Jigsaw tends to use the best for last…

"Gylroy, can you still walk?" asked Jackson.

Gylroy grunted when he stepped on the ground with his wobbly leg, but he still managed to stand up.

"Yeah…I'm okay, I guess."

"Looks like this is the last trap…"

"…I guess so."

"Did you ever wonder what you're gonna do when--"

"Jackson…please don't spoil the moment. We are one trap away from leaving this hellhole and I don't want to hear anymore life stories or any concept of Yin and Yang or any other kind of bullshit. I just want to get out of here and book a flight back to Asia."

"Okay."

Gylroy and Jackson walked into two separate doors and ended up inside of a long corridor with eight transparent Plexiglas bulletproof walls. As soon as the two of them got inside, all of the doors behind them locked and they were sealed inside.

Jackson sighed. "Wonder when the message is gonna play?"

Usually, they would have to find a tape recorder somewhere which would activate the next series of traps, but instead, an intercom turned on with Jigsaw's voice on it.

"There are nine separate doors that lead to this room. Therefore, there should be nine human beings standing inside of the corridor as of now. The overall point of these traps wasn't survival; it was teamwork. The nine of you have managed to find a way to collaborate with each other through the perilous traps that have brought forth upon you. All you have to do now…is walk. You must simply walk your way to the end of this corridor to unlock the doors. However, two sets of spikes will impale you through your shoes and the bottoms of your feet and give you minor restraint while you walk, but all of the spikes are connected to each other through the floorboards. This means that the nine of you should have no trouble using all of your strength to take each step."

Jackson was on the floor, panting heavily and perspiring. All nine people were supposed to survive! All of them! If Iggy didn't beat that woman in the head and seal Frizakk in the chamber, there wouldn't have been any reason for Nina to kill him. If Carl hadn't lead Nina into the trap, he wouldn't have gone solo and got his body crushed inside that room. And if Tommy asked someone just to boost him up to the broken wall tile, instead of panicking and beating Nina to the ground, then Gylroy wouldn't have had any reason to leave him in that hallway full of fans.

"However, it is still possible to get through this corridor with minor pain if there are eight or even seven of you if the corridor. Less than five…and it will be near impossible for any of you to get through this corridor without perishing. You see, if you do not reach past those red light checkpoints you see hanging on the walls in less than 30 seconds, you will suffer a painful punishment. If you waste over 60 seconds, then three metal panes will appear from the sides of the room and cut you into thirds. There are various obstructions in these rooms, but some of these might contain another punishing trap as well, so choose wisely. Let the games begin."

Jackson and Gylroy shouted when two spikes shot up from the floor and locked the bottoms of their feet in place. Imagine walking outside barefoot and stepping on a very sticky wad of gum. Only, the wad of gum won't let your foot go…no matter how hard you tug your foot away. You could stretch your foot several feet away but that stupid wad of gum will yank you right back to where you started. This is pretty much what the spikes were doing to their feet right now…only worse. If they pulled too hard, the skin off their feet would be yanked right off. Somehow, they had to find a way to get through the corridor with their feet intact.

"JACKSON!!" yelled Gylroy.

Jackson glanced over to Gylroy, who realized that his whole foot was impaled through the spikes; he lost his shoes back in the chamber, so his whole foot was stuck through the floor.

"How is this possible?! We can't possibly get through here with the two of us!"

"Jigsaw said all we have to do is walk! No matter what happens, just keep walking!" said Jackson.

Jackson started gritting his teeth and grunting heavily as he took a step forward, blood seeping through his boots. Then he took another painful step forward with his right foot, holding his foot in the air for a couple of seconds, as though the spikes wanted to drag him back to his doom. But Jackson shouted loudly and continued to walk forward with little resistance. Since he failed in the overall rules of the game, he just wanted to survive. He didn't even care about Gylroy that much anymore; he just wanted to live. Speaking of which, Gylroy hadn't even moved yet for the pain in his feet. If only he left his damn shoes on, he'd be fine…but he just had to rip them off. Gylroy made a fist and bit down on it with great force, leaving giant teeth marks. He winced and took a step forward, feeling excruciating pain. His fist managed to cover up the screams he made, but the pain in his feet was still very real. Meanwhile, Jackson had already passed through his first checkpoint, which made the lights turn green and beeped loudly. A wall appeared and shut behind him, but there was a purpose for it. See, this way, if the spikes drag him back, he'll hit the wall and stop at the checkpoint instead of the beginning of the room. The last thing he needed was to get dragged back to the place where he started.

Gylroy still wasn't doing so well; he hit his checkpoint AFTER he sprung the penalty trap. Four sets of spikes popped out from the floor, but Gylroy managed to swerve around them. However, when the walls closed, Gylroy fell to the floor and started breathing heavily. He actually believed that he wouldn't be able to get through the corridor in time. Once again, Gylroy put his fist in his mouth and bit down hard, ignoring the pain. The only problem was that one of the spikes wouldn't let him take a step forward. The spike wanted to drag him back to the wall. Regardless, Gylroy used all of his strength to step down on the floor with his right foot. Gylroy stomped his foot on the floor…

…and screamed horribly when his foot was ripped in half. You see, when he took a step forward, he was about to lift his foot again, but since the spike was implanted through the bone, it basically dragged his foot down so much that his foot just tore itself open, revealing the bone near his leg. If only he still wore his goddamn shoes…

"Gylroy!" yelled Jackson.

But there wasn't anything else he could do. Gylroy was stuck to the ground with a broken foot. Even when Gylroy tried to get up and move, he stumbled and fell on his stomach again. Each time he tried to drag himself forward, his foot would slowly peel away from his leg. Eventually, it was going to rip off completely. Maybe that's what Jigsaw wanted…but Gylroy couldn't go through that much pain. He already maimed his hand, the last thing he needed was to get his foot amputated. There wasn't anything Jackson could do to help Gylroy…not unless he had a high-tech laser that could cut through glass. A 30 second buzzer rang and Gylroy suffered his penalty: His hands were crushed by two large pipes that ejected from the ceiling.

Now there was absolutely nothing Gylroy could do to escape the corridor. He couldn't walk to the exit; his foot was literally hanging from his leg. And now he couldn't even crawl his way to the exit since his hands were just crushed into nothing. All he could do was lay there until the walls closed in and killed him, screaming for help. He had about five seconds left.

"NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!"

Three large white panes emerged from the left side of the walls and quickly zoomed in on Gylroy's body. Gylroy yelled or squealed something incoherently, but Jackson couldn't understand it. Gylroy's body squished and sliced as it was cut into thirds, consisting of his legs, his torso…and half of his head.

There a lot of different ways that a broken man acts. Some break down and cry, revealing all of the information they know while others get so scared that they have an anxiety or heart attack. Certain people even kill themselves to prevent the authorities from discovering anything. Jackson was NOTHING like those men. When Gylroy died, he stopped walking for a second and just looked at his corpse. Then he laughed softly to himself…laughing even harder after a couple of more seconds. He really didn't know what was going on, but he couldn't stop laughing for anything.

Unless…he was going insane. That had to be it; he was going crazy. Now he was howling with laughter, having a crazed and deranged look on his face, as though he thought this whole situation was amusing to him. Maybe it was funny. All Jackson had to do was walk forward…which was exactly what he was gonna do. He started to walk forward like he didn't even have the restraints on his feet at all…he felt no pain from it. And yet, the skin on the bottom of his feet was nearly peeling away, ready to snap off. Jackson continued to laugh until he reached the next checkpoint. Unfortunately, he was straining his feet so much that the skin attached to the bottom of his feet ripped off like paper. Jackson simply looked at his feet and tore off the rest of his shoes, revealing his bare feet. Still, Jackson was laughing wildly like he felt nothing at all. In fact, he was in a better position because the spikes weren't dragging him behind anymore.

Jackson suddenly realized that this was the objective of the game. Jigsaw knew Gylroy and Jackson were the last two survivors so they had to rip the bottom of their feet of in order to run to the exit. It was just like Detective Matthew when he had to saw off his foot…only he failed to do his challenge. So Jackson simply strolled down the corridor with no problems at all. He even activated a trap on purpose, which made an arrow impale him in the torso. Jackson simply giggled and ripped the arrow out, continuing to walk down the hallway. Jackson opened the door and glanced to the wall in the next room, which had a gun taped to it. The tape had the words "Don't use me." written on it, but Jackson ignored it. Suddenly, Jackson leaned over and vomited all over the floor, collapsing and landing on his stomach.

Jackson wasn't crazy at all; he just OD'd on a huge rush of adrenaline. Seeing Gylroy die just motivated him to the extreme, pushing him to keep going. That's why when he got out of the corridor, he suddenly felt the pain and was now completely weak. Jackson glanced forward and saw a dark figure walk in front of him.

"Hello Jackson." said the figure.

"…Jigsaw?"


	8. Making Amends

_Making Amends_

Jackson was lying on the floor with a semiautomatic pistol in his hand, panting heavily and bleeding from his feet. In front of the ex-arsonist was a man wearing a leather jacket and t-shirt underneath, along with blue jeans and brown shoes. His name was Hoffman, or as many others would call him, Jigsaw. He was the man who led the other eight individuals to their deaths. He was the one who severed a man in half with a pendulum. He was the one who trapped five human beings in a sewer and lead most of them to their deaths as well. And now, he was a man who was about to feel pain.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! You're Jigsaw?!" asked Jackson.

"I'm sorry. I guess you were expecting someone more…maniacal?" asked Jigsaw.

Jackson looked around the room and noticed that TVs and security consoles were set throughout the whole room. Jigsaw had been watching all of them this whole time.

"Jesus Christ, you've been watching us this whole time you sick fuck!"

"How's about we skip past all of the chastising insults and lewd behavior and maybe I should just tell you the rules of the next and final challenge?"

"I have the gun asshole…" muttered Jackson.

"That's just it; all you have to do in this final challenge is…shoot me. There's one bullet in that gun and you have one chance to shoot me. I suggest you take it."

"Or what? I get crushed by some stone column hidden in the ceiling tiles?"

"Just…shoot me. There's no catch or anything. All you have to do is pull the trigger."

Jackson slowly lowered the gun and sighed heavily, continuing to stare at Jigsaw with awe.

"Why…why are you doing this? Did you suddenly become suicidal but figured you don't want to suffer the wrath of hell so you make some other person kill you???"

"I didn't say kill me. I just said shoot me."

"…Wait, what?"

"See, that's what I like about you Jackson. You always try to thoroughly analyze the situations you encounter with every possible detail. That's how I knew you'd be the one who'd make it to the end Jackson."

"…So I can just shoot you and…that's it? I leave? You'll take me to a hospital?" asked Jackson.

"It depends…"

Jackson continued to stare at Jigsaw with bated breath while he held the gun at Jigsaw's chest. But there was just something that made it impossible for Jackson to shoot the gun. His head said shoot, his heart said shoot…but his hands were resisting his brain's commands. He just lay there on his stomach, holding the gun in his shaking hands.

"Hey, Jigsaw?"

"Yes?"

"Let me ask you something: Why do you do this? I mean, I already know the answer, and I know that you know the answer…and I know that you know that we both know the answer…but I just want to hear your answer. I just…want to hear your perspective, get your viewpoint. That's all."

Jigsaw sighed and thought long and hard about what to say to Jackson. He already knew Jackson had a high IQ and would probably suspect if he was lying or not. Since Jackson was going to pass out in the next couple of minutes anyway, he guessed it wouldn't hurt to tell Jackson the truth.

"Everyday…Jigsaw and I would see people on the news that were serial rapists and escape convicts and mass murderers and we'd always hear the same exact form of news. Someone was raped and got HIV here; another person was shot to pieces in gang retaliations or a gang initiation even. And frankly…I'm just sick and tired of it. Jigsaw thought of it a little different than I did, but we do share the same agenda. We don't capture innocent people and put them in this hellhole; everyone I've caught so far has been criminals and suicidal pedestrians."

"What about Nina?! What did she ever do?!"

"Nina decapitated her husband. That's not innocent."

"Her husband raped her and forced her to marry him. She finally got the balls to kill that son of a bitch and you put her in here?!"

"See, that's the thing. I was going to put her husband in here, but I guess Nina beat me to it…so I just put her in here. There are better options than killing people; you know that."

"What about Gylroy? So he buried a couple of people in cement. Does that mean he deserved to get his foot tore off and end up getting severed into thirds?"

"Yes it does. Did you ever consider the families of the people he killed and not just his own family?"

Jackson huffed. He was starting not to even care about why Jigsaw was doing this; he just wanted to question his morals and try to stupefy him.

"Tigre! What did she do?"

"Junkie. Car thief. Pretty self-explanatory."

Jackson dropped the gun.

"Did you know I was going to be the only one alive?"

"Yes. I already knew that Iggy and Carl were going to betray you. I knew that another team member was going to panic and try to sabotage everyone. I knew everything."

"HOW?! WHY?!"

"Well, mostly because of those cameras I posted everywhere. But also because I spent most of my high school career learning about psychology. Logics just told me what I should expect if I put nine random strangers inside of a building and expect them to work together. Sure, they'll be one or two people that may try to make friends with each other, but since no one is instructing these people to do these 'games' they'll try to find their own way to get through these events."

"So you don't even care that you sent two innocent women to their deaths. I never even got to know the name of one of them!"

"You know, I really didn't like what happened to Nina. But I couldn't trust Carl so I built my own, inescapable trap for him. If you don't already know, his organs have been flattened like pancakes."

"If you knew Carl was going to do that and you knew Iggy was going to kill that woman, why didn't you stop them before they even got here?"

"Because _you_ didn't know that was going to happen. I did it all to prove a point to you. See, there are times in your life where you can't save the people you want to save, you can't solve the puzzles you want to solve, and you can't always get what you want in life. Bottom line: Life isn't fair."

"…So this was all an attempt to teach me a valuable lesson?"

"That's what all of these tests are about. Jigsaw and I are just trying to teach people like you to treasure life more and not do bad things. Even if these tests are a tad bit…dramatic."

"So this is how it ends huh?"

"Why would you say that? It's not like anyone here is going to die or anything…right?"

Jackson picked up the gun again, but he suddenly dropped it again and continued to stare at Jigsaw.

"This is a trick, isn't it?" asked Jackson.

"Maybe…"

"No, no it is. According to your concept of human nature, you know that I'm going to shoot to kill. It's just human intuition in your eyes. That's why that tape on the wall said not to get the gun, because if I do, I'm gonna use it to kill, right? I think you have a tape hidden in your pocket and you're gonna take it out and press play the second after I shoot you. I think this whole room is another trap designed to kill me right when I think I'm free. Therefore…I can't shoot you, not if I want to win the game. Does that sound about right to you?"

Jigsaw smiled and took a tape out of his pocket, releasing his thumb off the play button. Jackson was right; the room he was in was another trap. If he had decided to shoot Jigsaw, the walls would slowly come together and crush Jackson to death, similar to what happened to Peter. The walls were heat sensitive and would only activate if the body temperature in the room dropped below Jigsaw's body temperature. Since the body would instantly go cold when it dies, the walls would turn on shortly after Jackson killed him, inevitably crushing Jackson to death.

"Well done, Jackson. Well done."

Jackson slowly shut his eyes and began to slip into unconsciousness.

* * *

Jackson first woke up seeing a very bright white light shining him in the face. At first, Jackson thought he was dead and was rising into heaven, but he turned to his left and saw a couple of chairs and blankets. He looked straight ahead and saw a TV in the top left corner of the room he was in. Then he heard the sound of his own breaths and the beeping of a defibrillation machine nearby. Jackson was safely resting inside a hospital, the arrow wound bandaged and sewn up, the bottoms of his feet covered in bandages. Jigsaw must've taken his unconscious body to the hospital after he blacked out. Jackson sighed heavily, not knowing what to do in his hospital bed.

He slowly moved his hand across the bed and turned the TV on. The channel he turned it to was the news channel, announcing that a factory had been discovered and seven bodies were found severely mutilated (Carl's body was still undiscovered). Jackson merely sat there and smiled halfway at the news story. Jackson had survived Jigsaw's traps.

He won the game.


End file.
